News outlets were buzzing a few months ago when Domino's Pizza founder Thomas S. Monaghan announced that he was creating a "Catholic" town in Florida around the Ave Maria Catholic University he was also creating. This town was supposed to be run according to traditionalist Catholic doctrines and values, as interpreted by Monaghan. He was sharply criticized and now seems to be backing away.

WTOP reported in March:

His ideas about barring pornography and birth control, he said, apply only to the Catholic university. “There are a lot of misconceptions,” Monaghan said Friday. ...

Monaghan’s comments Friday contrasted with statements he made last year to a Catholic men’s group in Boston that pornographic magazines won’t be sold in town, pharmacies won’t carry condoms or birth control pills, and cable television will carry no X-rated channels. “I would say I just misspoke,” Monaghan said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press. “The town will be open to anybody.” ...

The town will not allow adult bookstores or topless clubs. However, it will merely suggest, not prohibit, businesses from selling adult magazines or contraceptives. “We are not going to censor any of that information, but in deference to Ave Maria University, we are going to request that they not sell that merchandise but we are not restricting,” said Barron Collier chief executive Paul Marinelli. “The misconception we’re trying to clarify is that this is not going to be a strictly Catholic town. ... I think it would be boring if in fact it was all Catholic,” Marinelli said.

Other changes from earlier reports is that gays won’t be barred and cable television programming won’t be censored in order to conform to Vatican rules. Marinelli has also said that “synagogues as well as Baptist churches” would be allowed to open in the town. My, how generous. I wonder if Unitarian-Universalist churches and Wiccan covens will be allowed as well?

Marinelli said the town, expected to attract 25,000 residents, will offer affordable and extravagant housing... “We’re just trying to create an environment where children will be safe on the streets, where they can ride their bikes and play ball in the park,” he said. “We’re truly just trying to create a town with traditional values.”

Hmmm... extravagant housing is a “traditional” value? I wonder what sort of house Monaghan lives in and whether his personal experiences with great and wealth and power have influenced his perception about what is really “traditional” and what is consistent with his religious beliefs.

What would the reaction be if someone like Monaghan wanted to create a “white” community with a “white” university that would be dedicated to the promotion of white values, white civilization, and a white political culture? I assume that most people would be horrified, though of course there are those who can't tell the difference between the NAACP and White Nationalist, Neo-Nazi organizations. I suppose that they might applaud the creation of a “white community” around a “white university” as establishing a fair balance with historically “Negro” colleges.

Such mentally ill people aside, though, I doubt that such an announcement would be greeted with anything other than derision and condemnation. Yet, a “Catholic community” with a “Catholic university” is at least mildly OK, even if it crosses a few lines a little bit. Why is that?

 

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